Trickle down look at the rest of us

‘The Gildless Age’ at Torrance Art Museum considers life without trappings of the 1%.

When some of the gilding gets stripped away from our New Gilded Age, defined by the concentration of income and wealth that fueled the incredible rise of the “1%,” what is left behind? A new show at the Torrance Art Museum has some thoughts.

For “The Gildless Age,” an apt if rather clumsy title, guest curator Denise Johnson brings together work by a dozen West Coast painters, sculptors and photographers. A bit uneven and ultimately somewhat sparse, the show is, nonetheless, a welcome attempt to parse deep connections between art and society at large.

Some discoveries are not unexpected.

Rosa Hernandez, the cleaning lady, is artist Claudia Cano’s alter ego, a character who performed at the exhibition’s opening earlier this month. Hernandez, typically invisible as a behind-the-scenes worker who keeps things in order, turns up again in the galleries as an art object: a documentary photograph paired with a sculptural still life composed of a broom and dust pan.

That artistic gesture is slight. But art is always a prime Gilded Age adornment — a generic sign of status and symbol of civilized discernment, even when unwarranted. So Cano/Hernandez is not merely engaged in sweeping the floor; as a work of art, she’s also busy sprucing up rapacious reputations.

A similar motif undergirds a quiet, multi-channel video by the duo Jeff & Gordon (artists Jeff Foye and Gordon Winiemko). Their flat-screen triptych “Temporarily Embarrassed,” made in the grim aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, shows three Inland Empire houses at various price points, each being spruced up for reentry into the real estate market. Two upscale

Where: Torrance Art Museum, 3320 Civic Center Drive, Torrance

When: Through Oct. 29

Info: (310) 618-6388, www.torranceartmuseum.com